Aquarium photo clinic

**talldutchie** · 02-03-2013, 05:57 AM

This is a thread for members looking to improve their aquarium photography skills.

Who can submit pictures.
Anyone looking to improve their aquarium photography. Anyone who can take criticism. If you're just looking to show your fish to an audience this is not the place for you.

Who can comment
Anyone. But a simple "nice picture or "I don't like it" is not going to help much. Motivate your comment. It would help if a few people with at least basic knowledge of photography joined this thread.

How to submit
There's loads of photo hosting sites out there and this forum also allows you to host pictures. Personally I like flickr because it resizes your picture and gives you a copy/paste code for use on forums.

**talldutchie** · 02-03-2013, 05:59 AM

I'll start. Take a shot at this one please:

**~firefly~** · 02-03-2013, 08:52 AM

Great idea for a thread!

Positives: Composition is pleasing, with the diagonal line. Exposure is spot on. The two fish at the back are well set back in the depth of field and help set the scene.

Negatives: Depth of field is perhaps a touch too narrow as the foremost fish isn't quite pin sharp (at the eye) - could be camera shake. Tail is chopped off - for me it would've been nicer to include it.

**talldutchie** · 02-03-2013, 11:34 AM

Allright!! That's what we're looking for!

Now... camera shake tends to be uniform. Also I shot this at 1/100 and f5 so it's a bit unlikely.
What I did wrong here was a simple focus error. I had focus and the fish moved.

**amiidae** · 02-28-2013, 10:46 AM

Subject out of focus.

Composition will be better to include the entire tail of the subject.

Croping too tight. Looks better to leave abt 15-20% of "free" space around the subject.

**talldutchie** · 02-28-2013, 12:00 PM

The last is an interesting point. Would you care to elaborate a bit?

**amiidae** · 03-01-2013, 11:52 AM

Compare the following shots.

VS

Shot with more "free" space surrounding the subject.

**talldutchie** · 03-01-2013, 11:56 AM

Excellent!

I also notice the first shot, which looks better to me, more or less follows the rule of thirds.

**amiidae** · 03-01-2013, 12:31 PM

To me, the lower pix is a better shot.

Macro close-up shot is another ball game all together. :)

**~firefly~** · 03-01-2013, 01:32 PM

I think I also slightly prefer the second shot, although I wouldn't crop the shot quite like either of them myself (somewhere in between the two).

I don't agree that every photo should have 15-20% of free space around it. Sometimes the subject calls for a lot more space to set the context, sometimes a close crop can create a more arresting image. Depends on the subject, detail, depth of field, context...always